SOME BOOKS OF THE WEEK.
[Notice is this column does not necessarily preclude subsequeid review.] Of the Imitation of Christ. By Thomas ii Kempis. The Edith Cavell Edition. (H. Milford. 2s. 6d. net.)—This touching little book, a facsimile of the copy of the Imitation which Edith Cavell had with her in her last hours, appears appro_ priately in the week in which Queen Alexandra has unveiled the memorial outside St. Martin's-in-the-Fields. Bishop Ryle in his Introduction explains that Miss Cavell had the book through her long imprisonment at St. Gilles, Brussels, and that, after she had been done to death by the Germans, the book was sent to the American Embassy, to be transmitted to her cousin. The facsimile shows the passages that she marked ; in one or two places she has written the place and date. Thus, " St. Gilles " is written against the sentence. " It were more just that thou shouldest accuse thyself and excuse thy brother." And on the eve of her death she marked the passage beginning " I indeed labour in the sweat of my brows." These marked pages recall indeed all too poignantly that judicial murder which no Englishman can ever forget. On the frontispiece is Edith Cavell's signed record of her im- prisonment, ending " Died at 7 a.m. on Oct. 12th, 1915." The book is intended to assist the Edith Cavell Homes for Nurses. It will, we are sure, have a very large sale.
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